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Every month, let's follow the Electricians Without Borders (ESF) teams in the heart of the Amazon forest

Once a month, ESF’s project team will share with you its management of the “Puerto Maldonado” project, which consists of electrifying healthcare delivery points and schools in remote villages in the Amazon forest in Peru. This project is conducted with the support of Nexans and our Peruvian staff.

Here is our first interview with Project Leader Bernard Bonnefoy.

Nexans: Bernard, could you explain what the “Puerto Maldonado” project is about?Bernard Bonnefoy: Our project is about electrifying healthcare delivery points and schools in remote villages in the Amazon forest. This concerns 110 villages located in the Madre de Dios region in southeastern Peru.

Nexans: What role will ESF and Nexans play in this project?BB: We will install electric and photovoltaic equipment. In practical terms, this new equipment will make it possible to get more children into school and to enhance the quality and safety of healthcare by better managing patients. However, this project will also have indirect effects, as electrification is expected to help nurses and teachers to stay and work locally, to get families closer to villages and to develop economic activities. For this project, Nexans provides power cables used to equip healthcare delivery points and schools.

Nexans: Who are the beneficiaries of this project?BB: The first beneficiaries are the villagers and school-age children, who will access better quality healthcare and have an increased number of school places available. Teenagers in local orphanages will also be trained in the installation and maintenance of equipment.

Nexans: How was this project identified?BB: This project came in response to a joint request from the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Health and Education in Puerto Maldonado and Apronia (Asociación para la protección del niño y adolescente), a local organization for the protection of children and teenagers.

Nexans: Bernard, see you in a month’s time?BB: Yes, I will then be able to describe in more detail how we have first equipped five villages located a day’s travel away by dugout canoe along the Madre de Dios River.

Electricians without borders and Nexans

Access to energy and water are necessary conditions to fight against poverty and to promote economic development. Today, nearly 1.5 billion people have no access to electricity and more than a billion do not have safe drinking water. This is a crucial issue for developing countries and a major international solidarity.

For 25 years, Electricians Without Borders aims to facilitate access to energy and water and to encourage local initiatives that contribute to improve the living conditions of people in the less developped countries.

In 2011, Nexans has signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with Electricians without borders (ESF) to supply 50% of ESF’s annual needs for low and medium voltage power cables to the value of 300,000 euro over three years.